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Where are the interests of the people, in the corporate bribe money paid to our Congress Critters? With either political party?
It is time for "We the people..." to regain control of our government from the corporations.

TIMWS.COM

Posted 05/07/2017How can we afford Single Payer, Universal Health Care in this country?
We could stop our insane foreign policy of spending millions per missile to kill a few innocent people in the name of terrorism.
Canada manages to have Single Payer that works and their taxes are approximately the same as ours. Of course they don’t have the equivalent of the F-35 or 10 Nimitz Class aircraft carriers, such as the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), either.
Or have the official definition of a terrorist as a citizen of any country whose government doesn’t submit to our demands.
We, the US, have a much larger population than Canada does, so the cost per person for Single Payer would be lower. We might even have money left over to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and get our Internet up to date.

Golly Gee, health care for everyone, bridges that don’t fall down and working Internet for everyone. What more
could a civilized county wish for? Besides Living Wage Jobs for everyone?

Posted 03/13/2017
Posted 03/12/2017
All you are doing when you make laws against protesters and protesting, are sharping the swords of
the protesters for when they come after you.
Make enough laws, or the laws oppressive enough against the people and the guillotine will make a comeback.
Posted 03/12/2017
Writen 01/23/2017
Do not depend on the (D) or the (R) or if you admire or loath the person to determine if something is true or not. Facts matter.
Both political parties lie to us. "Popular" politicians lie to us. The Media has its own agenda and lies to us. Too often what is labeled "Fake News" is real and what is labeled "Real News" is not. There is not enough critical thinking anymore, by too many people. That (D) or (R) determines what they believe. Or the "junk" or lack same in the politician's paints. That is equally as bad as the (D) or (R), in deciding on who to vote for.

As for the crowd size, Obama promised us 'Hope and Change'. After George W Bush, no wonder the crowds were so big. But Obama lied to us. It wasn't too long after he was sworn in the first time, that the 'Hope and Change' he promised, turned into we had 'Hoped for Change', but it was slow in coming. It is still not there. The crowd size the second time for Obama, were quite a bit smaller than the first time. No one mentions that.

Comparing crowd size here is misleading. Obama told us what we wanted to hear. He lied to us. Trump won because Hillary is so corrupt, that she was under two FBI criminal investigations during the campaigner. Trump was the lesser of the two evils in many minds this time around. No way did we want Hillary and her nuclear option with Russia to be on the table and quict possably in play, if she won.

How many people voted for Trump as a protest vote against Hillary because of the DNC election fraud that gave us Hillary, instead of the rightful primary winner, Bernie Sanders? If you voted for Hillary and overlooked her Pay to Play, Clinton Foundation corruption and/or the DNC primary election fraud, you helped to give us Trump and his swamp stocking. That is a fact!

Posted 03/12/2017

Posted 05/15/2015

Wrong Priorities

Posted 05/03/2015
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are not the same. Bernie is much closer to the 1950 - 1960's Democrats. Hillary was a Republican then. Actually, she still is. The Democratic Party has moved far enough to the Right since then, for her to become a Democrat.(AKA, the 3rd Way, the New Democrats)
Bernie is Liberal on both social and economic issues. Hillary is a Corporatist, as Obama is, only she is even a bit farther to the Right economically than he is.
While Hillary is politically in the Center on social issues, on economic issues, she is over Center, to the Right, a corporatist, a moderate Republican, holding mostly the same views as some of the more sane Republicans do. She is also a Hawk. Bernie is not.
So, do you want to vote on the issues? Vote for your self interests? Issues that concern the majority of the people in this country? Or are you going to vote for a Republican Lite for President, because she is a woman, and you favor continuing our current economic problems, as we continue to outsource our better paying jobs through secret trade agreements?
It is really that simple. Do you want someone that more closely reflects your views on the issues, or do you want someone beholden to the 1% and big money on Wall Street (Check their donor list)? Do you want someone with a long record of working for the People, or do you want someone that got rich by being bought and paid for by the corporations?
Posted 03/31/2015

Posted 03/29/2015
Supporting a candidate who embodies Republican ideals IS voting for a Republican...no matter what letter is after their name.
Posted 03/03/2015Heads I win, tails you lose.
The deck is stacked. The playing field is tilted. We are being sold a bill of goods. Even though it is obvious to most, we still squabble among ourselves about who to choose to be the next front man, to continue the illusion that we still have a say.
Posted 12/23/2014It seems to be that more and more cops are acting like they are members of a street gang.
People are getting fed up and starting to push back.
First step is to work to DE-militarize the police. Retrain them to be peace keepers again. You know, to "Serve and Protect". When was the last time you saw that motto on a police car?
Also this country absolutely needs to stop the "War on _____". Not one of them has ever been, or even can be won. Not poverty, not drugs, and definitely not anything in the Middle East. All these wars are nothing but profit centers for the few.

Put the needs of the people first. We are not the enemy. We are all people first. Treat others with the same respect you would like to be treated with. Watch a lot of our problem just go away, disappear.
But that is never going to happen with the authoritarians in charge, thinking of the average citizen as the problem that needs to be controlled and kept in their proper place, with professional, uniformed enforcers, using street gang tactics to enforce the authoritarian's rules.

Posted 10/30/2014The root problem are guns.
It doesn't matter who has them, the root problem still boils down to guns. How many people need an arsenal? In fact, how many people actually need a gun in the first place?
How many times will it take, when a good guy with a gun, or guns, suddenly becomes a bad guy with a gun, or guns, without much, if any warning or prior suspicion of anything being wrong until people start dropping dead from being shot. How many schools, movie theaters, gas stations/convenience stores, any public or private places where people are being killed before we wake up and realize the root problem are too many guns in the hands of too many people?
The common denominator is guns, weapons, firearms, no matter how you slice and dice it.
I'll say it again, the problem are the guns themselves. The easy availability of guns of all kinds, by everyone, from two year old toddlers, to depressed/bullied teenagers, to the mentally unbalanced, to criminals of all descriptions, to say nothing about those "good guys", that think they are safer with a gun tucked in their waist band. And don't forget those well trained, good guy experts that have their guns go off when they are cleaning them? We read about those guys on a fairly regular basis, now don't we?
Easily availability of guns, without limit by almost anyone, for any purpose, is the real problem.
If you can't buy one for yourself, have a friend do it for you. Or just borrow one for the occasion. (The owner might get it back after the latest massacre) Buy one on a street corner, Or steal one. Guns are all over the place, available to anyone who wants one. That is the problem.
People have been killing each other since the beginning. It has never been so easy as now. Without a gun, you have to get up close and personal. With a gun, you can kill 10 year olds in their home, or 6 year olds coming out of a convenience store, both just by driving by in the relative safety of the street. Relative safety of the street? HA! Not hardly, when the shooter is driving around, targeting other drivers just for the fun of it.
Using a gun is easy, just point your manhood enhancer at someone or something and squeeze a small lever. Bang! You're dead. From the street, from a block away, from several blocks away.
Think you are safe in your home? Ask the parents of those dead kids who thought they were safe at home. With the easy availability of guns by any and everyone, you are not.
The good guy with a gun, is a target for the bad guys that wants a gun. Your fantasies aren't going to save you.
Posted 8/14/2014

More and more of our police are being equipped and acting like our military in the Meddle Middle East, when it come to dealing with upset civilian populations.
Why? For two main reasons. One, the excess military war equipment our police departments are getting from the Pentagon. Billions of dollars a year. They can't just let all that expensive equipment set about and rust, now can they? How is that being Macho?
And Two, pay attention here, boys and girls, this is important. The police departments are hiring ex-solders, often with various levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Put these men back into their old military style uniforms, with military style armament and put them in front of an unruly civilian crowd, or even a peaceful demonstration, and guess how fast the flash backs start to happen?
To me, it looks as if our own government is gearing up to go to war with us, the US Citizens.
What do civilian police departments have for excess military equipment in the first place? Properly fund our local police department and use equipment designed for civilian police, with training more in keeping with a generally peaceful civilian population. Military equipment and training are for use in the wars we start and supply, not against our own people, here in our own country.
One last question: Is that man in the middle, in the above cartoon, a US solder in a overseas conflict? Or is that man in the middle, a police officer during a demonstration, right here in this country?
The police should NOT be dressed or equipped like soldiers in a war zone. If things get that bad, call in the Nation Guard. The police need to go back "To Protect and to Serve", not the all to often, as is currently the case, "To Intimidate and to Harm".
Posted 7/17/2014Pulitzer-winning journalist admits he's illegal immigrant

OK, I read the link. Jose Antonio Vargas was a kid, a child of 12. He did not know at the time he was here illegally, until some years later. How is it his fault he is here? Almost all he knows is in this country.
On the plus side, he is not a criminal, he was self-supporting, law abiding and good at what he does. He sought higher education and got it. He has done more than a lot of people that were born here do.

As for the laws, few laws are sacrosanct. In fact many are quite arbitrary, being passed for some personal or political agenda or other. If I were a immigration judge with this case, I would let him stay and because of the amount of time he was here and his contributions. I would allow him to jump the line to the front for citizenship. We need more people like him here.

My opinion, If they can keep themselves out of trouble, find gainful employment, without being a burden on society, they should be granted legal residency. Being ticketed for J-walking is not reason enough to deport someone, as has happened to some otherwise successful 'illegals'.

Our whole immigration policy is messed up. (What else in new in this country?) To go by what some people are advocating now for immigration policy, the American Indians would have every right to kick everyone else out, that have arrived since Plymouth Rock. The same goes for the Mexicans living on the land the US government decided belonged to the United States, which includes most of the western US.

If we had sane immigration laws, If we did not meddle in the affairs of other countries, if we did not treat the Aboriginals of these other countries as we did the Aboriginals that were in this country, when our ancestors arrived, there would not be such a major immigration problem.

Again laws are not sacrosanct. It the law just? Is it being applied in the spirit it was written? If there is something wrong with a law, work to change them. Voter ID laws comes to mind. There is no problem with voter fraud, but such laws are being passed for the purpose of keeping a segment of voters from voting, because they have a tendency to vote the wrong way, at least from the prospective of the people passing these laws. So it is with immigration laws.

Another are the abortion laws in this country. Basically they are saying women are not smart enough to figure things out for themselves and need the help of politicians and religious busybodies to help them decide? Really? Are those laws sacrosanct too? I don't know about you, but I'm thinking not.

Common sense is downplayed played in our immigration laws, while 'What's in it for me" is behind much of our laws in general. Big agricultural business, politicians letting their votes be bought, MONEY, being prejudice against who ever or all other groups. The mindset being, "I got mine, da hell widt chue".

Sabrina, you have a quite a bit of empathy for those less fortunate. That is good. Take that empathy, along with the idea that no law is actually sacrosanct, and apply those to your own 'immigration policy'. How is the fit? Good? Poorly? Eh, what?

What is more important? People trying to make a better life for themselves, or laws designed to benefit the already Haves, over the Down Trodden? Oh, and don't forget the involvement of our own government and the CIA in their home countries, contributing to the terrible conditions of those people living there, causing them to want to travel for many thousands of dangerous miles to come here in the first place, for a better chance to live their lives.

Posted 7/17/2014
We spend too much on our military and not enough on domestic spending that helps "We the people..."
Our economic plight could be improved if we spent that money raising our quality of life here instead of exporting our war toys, strife and turmoil around the world.
The world would be a much safer place to be if we didn't sell as much of our weaponry around the world as we do.
Posted 4/29/2014
We have no real Democratic Party in this country anymore. What we do have is the Left wing of the mostly kinda saner part of the Republican Party, i.e., the DLC, the 3rd Way. The Democratic leadership represent the Right of Center Democrats, i.e., Business, Banks and Wall Street. That (D) does not mean Progressive or Liberal by any means. All that (D) means is the wearer is a member of the Democratic Party, no matter how far to the Right they are. The Democratic Party has moved so far to the Right, many Republicans are joining the Democratic Party, because it has moved to the Right far enough to to be in agreement with the moderate Republicans of old.
Anyone to the Left of Center has no real representation, as shown by the graphic in the upper left hand of this page. We still have a few representatives on the national level, but they are shunted aside and made mostly ineffectual. Things are not quite as bad on the State level.
The Donkey on the background wallpaper, represents the Demolicons (or Rebuplicrats). The product of the merging of the two major political parties in this country. We now have the Republicans and the Demolicons (or Rebuplicrats). The Democratic Party died when the big money, business friendly, Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) took it over.
Posted 4/30/2014Are more toll roads in America's future?
The Obama administration on Tuesday submitted to Congress a $302 billion, four-year surface transportation bill meant to avert a possible summer shutdown of federally funded projects.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says inaction on what the administration calls the GROW AMERICA Act could have wide-ranging impact.

"As soon as August, the Highway Trust Fund could run dry," Foxx wrote Tuesday on the Department of Transportation's blog. "States are already canceling or delaying projects. That means crucial road improvements won't get done. It means transportation construction companies won't get contracts. And it means workers won't have job sites."

Nearly everyone agrees that America's infrastructure, especially its aging highway system, needs work. But one particular part of the bill has raised some eyebrows.http://www.cbsnews.com/news/are-more-toll-roads-in-americas-future/This looks like the first step to privatize the nations interstate system. First the states set up the toll booths. Then they will outsource the operations. After that, they will turn over the management of the interstates to private companies. Then lastly, turn over outright ownership for cents on the dollar. You gotta know the maintenance will still be tax subsidized under private ownership. And another thing, this is another tax, that hits those least able to afford it, the hardest. The ticket and toll booths slow vehicles down, then they have to get up to speed again, wasting fuel. This is a bad idea all around.The real solution is to make the well off, pay their fair share in taxes. Stop financing this country on the backs of those that can least afford it. And when a toll road crosses a state line? You pay, move ahead a short distance, then get another ticket to drive on that states toll interstate?
This idea came out of the Obama White House? Why do some people still think Obama is any kind of Liberal, even after almost 10 years of showing he is not? President Dwight Eisenhower(R) must be spinning in his grave.

1. Voters should be required to present a photo identification in order to cast their votes.
AGREE 32.30 DISAGREE 61.13
No OPINION 5.54 BLANK 1.04 Voter fraud has never been much of a problem in this country. It is Election Fraud that is the problem. Everything from gerrymandering to Electronic Touch Screen Voting Machines.

GUN REGULATION

2. The legislature should again pass a law nullifying all federal gun laws in our state and making it illegal to enforce any of these federal laws.
AGREE 16.11 DISAGREE 74.74
No OPINION 5.56 BLANK 3.59 Really? Since when can states nullify Federal Law? They can't. Not even by passing laws saying they can. How juvenile.

3. Missouri should require universal background checks on every firearm sale - at licensed dealers, gun shows, and over the internet.AGREE 90.18 DISAGREE 6.78
No OPINION 1.99 BLANK 1.05Most people have no need for hand guns. None at all. If we were to be a civilized country, we would not be awash in hand guns of all kinds. Anyone that thinks they need a hand gun, needs to supply proof of such. Concealed and open carry need to be backed up by both need to, and after a through background check. And the results of this background check needs to filed and kept on file forever in the State Records - No matter whether the permit is issued or denied.

4. Our state should prohibit the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.AGREE 79.26 DISAGREE 16.92
No OPINION 1.97 BLANK 1.85 Who are we at war with, in this country, that civilians need assault style weapon? Even the military does not need or use high-capacity magazines. Why would a civilian?

MARRIAGE EQUALITY

5. I support marriage equality and the legalization of same-sex marriage.AGREE 81.42 DISAGREE 13.82
No OPINION 3.60 BLANK 1.16I have never understood the opposition to this. I think some people should work a little harder to make their own heterosexual marriage work better instead, huh?

CAMPAIGN ETHICS REFORM

6. The Missouri legislature should reinstate campaign contribution limits.AGREE 89.88 DISAGREE 5.12
No OPINION 2.79 BLANK 2.21Politcal campaigns should not be get rich quick schemes for politicians. We elect, hire them, to represent us in our government. They are supposed to do our bidding. The current situation is nothing more than legalized bribery by rich people, of corrupt politicians.

7. The General Assembly should continue to allow lobbyists to give unlimited gifts to legislators.
AGREE 4.86 DISAGREE 89.70
No OPINION 2.66 BLANK 2.78Open bribery. Why do we allow our legislators to be so open and even to advertise their availability to be bribed?
Oh, that's right, Missouri is a Red Republican State.

LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

8. Marijuana use should be legalized for medicinal purposes only.
AGREE 42.77 DISAGREE 44.29
No OPINION 8.86 BLANK 4.08Marijuana is one of our more benign recreational drugs. There has been well documented medical uses for Marijuana for hundreds of years. Yet is is classified as a hard drug, the same as Heron or cocaine, which also have medical uses.

9. Recreational marijuana should be legalized for all adults.AGREE 61.71 DISAGREE 27.87
No OPINION 8.90 BLANK 1.52Marijuana is much more benign than alcohol and does far less damage in the long run.

10. Possession of marijuana should continue to be a violation of the law, but the penalty for its use should be a fine (decriminalize it).
AGREE 40.14 DISAGREE 45.94
No OPINION 8.12 BLANK 5.80Marijuana should be treated the same way as alcohol.

ABORTION

11. Abortion should remain a safe and legal medical procedure for a woman to consider, if and when she needs it.AGREE 82.96 DISAGREE 11.20
No OPINION 3.50 BLANK 2.33Abortions is a medical, not a political prosedure. Only the people other than the woman and the doctor that need to be concerned is a husband or boyfriend. And even then, it is the woman's decision, as it is her body and her life.

12. Abortion should be outlawed.
AGREE 9.38 DISAGREE 84.38
No OPINION 4.17 BLANK 2.08With over seven billion of us on this planet, stripping it of its resources at an alarming rate, abortion should be cheap and easy to have. Again, it is the woman's body and her life, not yours to interfere with.

13. Abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape or threats to the life of the woman.
AGREE 12.21 DISAGREE 79.53
No OPINION 4.88 BLANK 3.37See # 12. Stop meddling in other people's lives where you have no business being!

DEATH PENALTY

14. The death penalty should be abolished in Missouri.AGREE 54.49 DISAGREE 37.46
No OPINION 6.30 BLANK 1.75I agree. If for no other reason than there are too many people on Death Row that have been proven to be innocent of the crime they have been state sanctioned murdered for.

15. Missouri should institute the firing squad to execute those on death row.
AGREE 13.94 DISAGREE 74.33
No OPINION 10.10 BLANK 1.63Sure why not? Just ask for volunteers from the hand gun carrying, general public. Many of those dream of shooting people. Give'em a full clip and a taste. /sarcasm

HEALTH CARE EXPANSION

16. Missouri should participate in the health care (Medicaid) expansion.AGREE 77.62 DISAGREE 14.53
No OPINION 5.65 BLANK 2.19Twice in the United States Constitution, it mentions "general welfare". Once in the Preamble and again in Section 8, where it states; "...and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;..." How is the general health of a country's citizens not part of the general wealfare of a country?

17. The Medicaid system is broken and should be fixed before our state pursues expansion.
AGREE 22.88 DISAGREE 59.00
No OPINION 14.40 BLANK 3.72There is no reason, good or otherwise why this country does not have Single Payer, Universal Health Care. The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, actually did little to correct the major problem of health care in this country. We still have the parasitic, for profit, middlemen, the health insurance companies, standing between you and your doctor and your access to proper health care. And driving up costs. Health insurance is not health care.

(Above italics are my comments.)

More text and stuff is going here. I have lots to do yet.
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